Lawson: “Childhood dreams do comes true”

The promotion of Oracle Red Bull Racing Formula One driver Liam Lawson from reserve status to a full-time drive is a childhood dream come true. From next weekend the 22-year-old New Zealander replaces Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the Visa Cash App RB Racing team alongside his former team-mate Yuki Tsunoda for the remainder of this year.

It’s been a long wait for Lawson, who signed with Red Bull as a Junior driver on his 17th birthday, to reach a goal he set for himself as a six-year-old. He came close with a successful five-race stint in F1 last year when he stood in for an injured Riccardo but since then it’s sometimes been a difficult wait to gain a full-time drive.

“It feels like a long time coming but very exciting. There’s been a lot of hard work from a lot of people for a lot of years. It’s not just my dream but the dream of a lot of people around me to get a seat in the sport,” said Lawson. “It’s very exciting.”

“It’s definitely been hard at times. There’s been parts over the past couple of years, more so than not, that haven’t been so much fun. Some difficult experiences but obviously I knew it was all part of the learning process and at the end of the day if it meant I was going to get a seat eventually I was always working towards that. And the goal never changed.”

From karting at age six Lawson raced through the Formula First and Formula Ford single-seater categories in New Zealand before venturing off-shore at age 15 with a championship title under his belt to race Formula 4 in Australia.

The next moves after that are what Lawson regards as two of the most pivotal moments of his journey to Formula One.

“I think my first season of international racing, doing F4 in Germany – even though we had multiple routes we could have gone down – and picking the highest level championship that we could have was massive for my development, because I had a lot to learn very quickly.

“And then the next decision was doing the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand and I think that links up with doing that F4 series. Racing in a high level championship like that prepared me for racing TRS with guys that raced in much higher championships like F3 and DTM. It basically prepared me for TRS which then obviously allowed me to get the Red Bull contract, which started everything.”

Lawson finished runner-up in the 2018 ADAC F4 series in Germany before returning home to champion the TRS series and win the NZ Grand Prix.

Not only choosing the right championships to race in but surrounding himself with the right support has also been a key to his continuing success.

“Having the right people around me from day one and only letting in right-minded people who we believed had the right intentions to be behind me, I think that was a massive foundation for helping to progress every single year. As I’ve prepared for each series, having the right people around me closely, with my performance coaches, like Enzo [Mucci], and trainers who made sure that my preparation was also as good as it could be.”

One of the biggest challenges Lawson and his supporters faced was continuing to fund the ever increasing costs as he progressed up the ladder to Formula One. In 2021 if it hadn’t been for Rodin Cars founder David Dicker parting with more than a million dollars in sponsorship Lawson’s journey may well have ended.

“Without David we would never have been able to complete the journey. He came in at quite a pivotal point when we needed to come up with a huge amount of money that realistically we weren’t able to come up with from the rest of New Zealand. David made that possible in forming the partnership with Red Bull in F2. Doing those two seasons got me Free Practice sessions and testing in Formula One, and then got me the Reserve contract.

“It was really cool to be able to tell David that it had finally come off. He was a big believer in the process, and in me, and it was really cool to be able to tell him and everybody that’s played a financial part.”

Three of Lawson’s key sponsors have also been with him since he first ventured off-shore. The Giltrap Group, Turners Automotive and the Porter Group have been with him since 2017 and although the late Sir Colin Giltrap was able to see Liam race in F1 last year, the man who originally came up with the concept for his financial structure, John Fairhall passed away too soon.

“I’ll never forget the very first meeting with John in Christchurch and I remember talking about what we needed to do to get to Europe and to Formula One and he was adamant that we needed to structure the initial foundation with five key people that would basically put in a serious amount of money over time and that’s exactly what we ended up achieving.

“It was John’s idea and initial investment that kick-started everything really, so I wish he could have been here today to see us succeed but I know he had enough belief when he started this with us. He believed it was possible and it was going to happen and so I’m sure he had no doubt.”

Fairhall was the Managing Director of Archibald’s in Christchurch at the time of his death.

Now that he’s reached his childhood goal to become a Formula One racing driver, what would he tell a six-year-old Liam today?

“What I would tell any six-year-old nowadays, that basically anything is possible and if it’s Formula One or whatever you want it to be that you can absolutely chase it.”

Liam Lawson is the tenth New Zealander to drive in Formula One since Bruce McLaren became the first in 1958, and follows on from Brendon Hartley who last raced in 2018 for Scuderia Toro Rosso, now branded the Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team.

Lawson’s journey to Formula One has also been proudly supported by Cumulo9 and the Tony Quinn Foundation.

ENDS:

COPYRIGHT FREE IMAGE (2):
(1A/1B) Liam Lawson has secured a full-time F1 seat with Visa Cash App RB Formula One team starting from the next Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. Photo: Red Bull Content Pool.

(2) Competing in the German F4 series in 2018 was a key championship to his continuing success.

(3) Liam Lawson competed successfully in the former Toyota Racing Series which led to his Red Bull Junior contract, and ultimately an F1 contract. Photo: Geoff Ridder.

(4) Liam Lawson with David Dicker and Rodin’s FZED, 2021. Photo: MoMac